Archinect - News

Making the case for "codesign" and "Country"-centered design

2024-02-20T00:15:00-05:00

There is a residual feeling that architecture is not for us because it has been complicit in colonization...Now that we have more voices contributing to this space, in the next few years, we’re going to really shift the idea of what design and architecture can do for the community.

Will Higginbotham profiles Jefa Greenaway, of Greenaway Architects. Jefa is one of a small number of registered Indigenous architects in Australia.

A new soccer training center for the Vancouver area designed by Formline Architecture

2024-01-14T14:00:00-05:00

The City of Port Coquitlam in British Columbia, Canada, recently unveiled the final proposed design for one of the province’s largest training and recreational hubs for soccer.

Designed by Indigenous-led, Vancouver-based firm Formline Architecture, the facility will serve as a state-of-the-art soccer and community hub and B.C. Soccer’s new headquarters, with office space for local soccer club Port Coquitlam Euro-Rite FC. The project includes the reconfiguration and improvement of the surrounding Gates Park, which is located just west of downtown Port Coquitlam.

New renderings reveal that there will be a 1,200-seat grandstand covered by a sculpted wooden roof. This space will feature locker rooms, washrooms, a lobby, a meeting space, and other amenities. Additionally, a state-of-the-art synthetic turf field will be constructed to FIFA international competition standards, replacing an existing underutilized grass field. There will also be a multi-use public plaza for community events ...

In Celebration of Indigenous Peoples' Day, here are a few selected lectures and events to add to your calendar

2023-10-09T08:00:00-04:00

In honor of today's Indigenous Peoples' Day celebration, we are highlighting a collection of events and lectures advancing the discourse on Native American traditions, rights, and cultures in the built environment that will be taking place this week and throughout the fall.

Affirming Indigenous Worldviews

Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation
New York, Monday, October 9

The fourth AFFIRMATIONS discussion, "Indigenous Worldings," on October 9 at 6:30 PM, features Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui and Paulo Tavares. The discussion will be followed by a response from GSAPP Assistant Professor Emanuel Admassu.

Bridging Academia and Indigenous Communities

University of Pittsburgh Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences
Pittsburgh and online, Monday & Tuesday, October 9 & 10

The school's Department of History of Art and Architecture in conjunction with the Carnegie Museum of Natural History presents special Indigenous Peoples' Day programming on Oct...

Florida State University and UCLA share resources to create a new history of Indigenous thatch work architecture in the Americas

2023-05-26T12:00:00-04:00

A new project led by Florida State University associate professor Paul Niell is working to retrace the lineage of thatch work architectures used by different African and Indigenous diaspora groups throughout the Americas in the hopes of documenting and preserving their impact on history for future generations of scholars.

Niell teaches Caribbean art and architectural history in the school’s College of Fine Arts with a focus on the architecture and cultural landscapes of the Hispanophone Caribbean in the late-18th and early-19th centuries.

Recently, he coordinated with UCLA associate professor Stella Nair, several graduate students, and representatives of different Indigenous groups to organize a three-part conference titled “Forgotten Canopy: Ecology, Ephemeral Architecture, and Imperialism in the Caribbean, South American, and Transatlantic Worlds,” that provided a framework for further study into the vernacular domestic structures that predominated in both regions.

A modern examp...

Architecture of Mesa Verde's Sun Temple reveals ancient astronomical observatory

2023-03-22T10:39:00-04:00

It’s sheer genius...The architect did this with no known writing or numerical system, no computers. They laid it out with yucca cords and sticks. They were the Michaelangelo of their time.

A diagram of Sun Temple drawn by pioneering archaeologist J.W. Fewkes (National Parks Service)

David Gilbert digs into recent analysis by Dr. Sherry Towers who believes cliff-dwellings in southwestern Colorado’s Mesa Verde National Park comprise one of the most advanced astronomical observatories in the ancient world. Though at least some indigenous Hopi argue they were more places for collective celebration, not measurement, of solar and lunar cycles.

UNM architecture chair Chris Cornelius offers NYT an insight into how his Indigenous heritage informed his career

2023-03-10T14:42:00-05:00

Just over one year since Chris Cornelius took up his role as the Chair of the Department of Architecture at the University of New Mexico, the architect and educator has spoken to The New York Times on how his career was informed by his upbringing and his Oneida heritage.

An enrolled member of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, Cornelius is also the founding principal of studio:indigenous, a design practice that serves American Indian clients. Back in 2017, to mark Indigenous Peoples’ Day, Archinect included Cornelius’s firm in a list of our favorite contemporary practices led by Indigenous architects.

“In our neighborhood, there were no trees or sidewalks,” Cornelius told The Times about his childhood in a federal public housing project on the Oneida Indian reservation. “When I saw how different life was off the reservation, I began to think about how I could make an impact on my environment.”

Art Gallery of Ontario reveals Selldorf, Diamond Schmitt, and Two Row-led expansion design

2023-03-02T16:52:00-05:00

The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) has just revealed the initial plans for its new Dani Reiss Modern and Contemporary Gallery project led by Selldorf Architects, Diamond Schmitt, and Two Row Architect.

The 40,000-square-foot addition will add 13 galleries in order to expand its total exhibition space by 30%. The project is being funded by a $35 million donation from Canada Goose CEO Dani Reiss and, led by Two Row, has sought expensive input from Ontario’s Indigenous community in addition to the other two architect-advisors that were announced by the gallery last year.

The AGO says: “These conversations and others are instrumental in leading the team to adopt adaptability, accessibility, relevancy, zero carbon operating, and inclusivity as their guiding principles.”

Rendering courtesy of Art Gallery of Ontario, Diamond Schmitt, Selldorf Architects, and Two Row Architect

The project will accomplish a zero carbon emissions output for all its operations and otherwise be designed along int...

MASS Design Group announces acquisition of long-time Santa Fe collaborator Atkin Olshin Schade Architects

2022-11-16T12:03:00-05:00

MASS Design Group has announced its acquisition of Santa Fe, New Mexico-based Atkin Olshin Schade Architects (AOS) in a move they say will offer an enhancement of the relationship the two have built already through years of collaboration.

The merger makes the new combined entity Santa Fe’s largest architectural office, with further opportunity to leverage AOS’s Philadelphia operation in order to pursue “innovative approaches to preservation, adaptive reuse, and design for mission-focused organizations throughout the northeast and nationally.”

Previously on Archinect: MASS Design Group founder Michael Murphy announces he is stepping down, will join the faculty at Georgia Tech

It comes just under a month after MASS’s co-founder Michael Murphy left the firm to take a position on faculty at Georgia Tech University, handing over the reins to his former Senior Principal and Managing Director Christian Benimana and Patricia Gruits as well as the firm’s co-founder and current Chief Design O...

Portland State University enlists Australian architect to develop Indigenous Center and surrounding oak savanna

2022-10-13T10:02:00-04:00

Kevin O’Brien, an acclaimed Indigenous architect from Australia, has embarked on a year-long collaboration with Portland State University. His involvement centers on the restoration of a campus oak savanna and the design-build of a facility at the site that will host the school’s Indigenous Traditional Ecological and Cultural Knowledge (ITECK) program.

O’Brien joins the University’s School of Architecture as its 2022 Distinguished Visiting Professor. He will lead a one-week Indigenous design methods workshop for undergraduate and graduate students. He will also meet with students in PSU’s Indigenous Nations Studies program, engage with architects from local firms, and host a public lecture. As stated on PSU’s website, “O'Brien will challenge students to rethink their assumptions about architecture's relationship to the land, how they imagine the city, and how we learn through doing.”

The Queensland-based architect works as a Principal at Australian practice BVN Architecture. He als...

University of New Mexico announces Chris Cornelius, champion of Indigenous design culture, as new Chair of Architecture

2021-09-10T17:16:00-04:00

The University of New Mexico (UNM) has announced Chris Cornelius as their new Chair of the Department of Architecture. A prominent advocate for the awareness of architecture’s connection with culture, particularly American Indian culture, Cornelius is set to take up the role on November 1st, 2021.

An enrolled member of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, Cornelius is also the founding principal of studio:indigenous, a design practice which serves American Indian clients. Back in 2017, to mark Indigenous Peoples’ Day, Archinect included Cornelius’s firm in a list of our favorite contemporary practices led by Indigenous architects.

His work has been recognized through numerous honors, including a Smithsonian Institution Artist in Residence Fellowship from the National Museum of the American Indian in 2003, and the 2017 Miller Prize from Exhibit Columbus. He was also among a grou...

New York’s Center for Architecture Launches Digital Residency to Promote New Voices in Design

2021-04-19T11:39:00-04:00

New York’s Center for Architecture has announced the launch of the Center for Architecture Lab – a digital residency dedicated to promoting new voices and ideas in architecture. Created in response to major destabilizing forces, from the COVID-19 pandemic to the racial justice movement in the United States, the program will invite a diverse, multi-disciplinary field of professionals to engage with important issues through the lens of architecture and design. Through this, it hopes to encourage the architectural community to consider outside perspectives, critical questions, and innovative solutions to problems within and beyond the architectural profession.

The multi-month residency program will see a series of individuals, institutions, and organizations contribute their expertise to important questions in the built environment. The program will offer residents full authorship over dedicated areas of the Center for Architecture’s digital platforms, where they will publish compellin...

Indigenous Canadian architect Douglas Cardinal announced as University of Toronto Daniels 2020-2021 Gehry Chair

2021-01-05T14:59:00-05:00

The Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design announced that the 2020-21 Frank Gehry International Visiting Chair in Architectural Design is renowned Canadian architect Douglas Cardinal, OC, FRAIC. Cardinal is known both for his striking designs and for his advocacy for the rights and dignity of Indigenous peoples.

"The vicissitudes of Douglas Cardinal’s life are one of those larger-than-life tales — from the nurture of home, to the trauma of residential schools, and then perseverance and a precocious commitment to architecture and the evolution of a unique idiom of design," says associate professor Robert Levit in a statement. "We are thrilled to have him joining us this year at the Daniels Faculty to share his thoughts on architecture, and to host conversations with our students."

Detail of the National Museum of the American Indian. Image courtesy of Douglas Cardinal Architect. Originally published in the article Happy Indigenous Peoples' Day! Here's a look at some o...

In many ways, the climate future is already here

2020-11-02T11:20:00-05:00

Kunkel thinks a hybrid between Indigenous and Western architecture styles could lead to more sustainable designs, ones that incorporate modern technology to achieve the same qualities found in the place-based architecture perfected by Indigenous people over thousands of years.

Spaces of Opportunity: Phase 1 (under construction)

Jessica Kutz on how Phoenix and other communities across America, are already having to adapt to extreme heat plus other impacts of climate change. At the same time these communities are already developing solutions; from "smarter" cities utilizing more accurate measuring and modeling, to planting more trees and re-purposing vacant lots for farming and open space. Or re-discovering, while also re-inventing, indigenous and vernacular architecture.

An Archinect op-ed by Joseph Kunkel, This Land is Your Land, This Land is My Land—COVID-19’s Impact on Indian Country

Architects reconnect with Indigenous traditions in Toronto

2020-09-22T18:30:00-04:00

Smoke detectors and birch trees. These are two things that an architect would not typically mention while talking up an ambitious new building. But for the Indigenous House at the University of Toronto Scarborough, these matters are critical. Here, connections with Indigenous traditions and ways of thinking will be everywhere, from the guts of the building to the landscape that accompanies it.

Alex Bozikovic, The Globe and Mail’s architecture critic, reviews the planned Indigenous House at the University of Toronto Scarborough, designed by Formline Architecture in collaboration with LGA Architectural Partners and landscape architecture firm Public Work.

Inside Winnipeg's growing Indigenous design scene

2020-06-22T16:00:00-04:00

As American architecture firms and institutions continue to grapple with inadequate levels of diversity and inclusion, Canadian groups are highlighting an increased willingness to highlight and support the work of Indigenous designers.

A recent CBC article highlights the Brook McIlroy Indigenous Design Studio, a focus within the Winnipeg, Canada-based practice that engages with Indigenous communities and worldviews as a part of its overarching ethos. The firm, according to the architects, positions Indigenous designers to lead "co-creation teams with Canadian professionals whose families have come from all over the world," and has worked to nurture Indigenous design talent for over a decade.

Previously on Archinect: "GSD students launch Harvard Indigenous Design Collective." Photo courtesy of Wikimedia user Gunnar Klack.

Brook McIlroy senior associate, Ryan Gorrie, who is Anishinaabeg from the Bingwi Neyaashi Anishinaabek (Sand Point First Nation on Lake Nipigon) region tells CBC, ...

GSD students launch Harvard Indigenous Design Collective

2020-06-04T16:05:00-04:00

Harvard University Graduate School of Design students Elsa Hoover, Zoë Toledo, Heidi Brandow, and Jaz Bonninou have come together to create the Harvard Indigenous Design Collective (HIDC), a group that "promotes design by and for Indigenous communities as foundational to the history, theory, and practice of design fields."

The four students all hail from Native American backgrounds themselves and, according to the The Harvard Gazette website, represent the largest cohort of Native American students to ever attend the school at once.

Bonnin, a student in the M.Des. program of Yankton Sioux, Blackfoot, Irish, Danish, French, Panamanian, and Mexican Native descent, tells The Harvard Gazette, "I am enrolled in a master’s of design program, focusing on issues of conservation and preservation. My goal is to specialize in designing atriums, courtyards, and indoor-outdoor garden spaces for small-scale residential, commercial and adaptive-reuse clientele.”

Hoover, an M.Arch. student of Anish...